Price gains lift 400,000 homes above water

Home price increases helped more homeowners regain some equity in their homes during the second quarter, according to an analysis by Zillow.Zillow's Negative Equity Report estimates that 30.9 percent of homeowners with mortgages owed more than their homes were worth at the end of June, down from 31.4 percent at the end of March. That translates into 15.3 million underwater homes -- about 400,000 less than three months before.The report -- which compares Zillow's automated home valuation "Zestimates" for individual homes with actual mortgage loan balance data from TransUnion -- showed all but one of the 30 largest markets tracked by Zillow saw a quarter-over-quarter improvement in their negative equity rate.Metro areas seeing the greatest quarter-to-quarter percentage point decr...